I forced out a laugh.
Kharon didn’t join me.
“Alexis.” Augustus’s eyes were dark as a moonless night. “Don’t you want to know what my favorite color is?”
“What … is it?”
“A shade of pure milky white I’ve only seen in one place.” He lifted his hand to my face, thumb tracing tenderly across my left cheekbone.
I leaned into his touch.
No one had ever complimented me on my injured eye. They said the contrast between them was cool, but no one had lookedonlyat my ruined eye and thought it was beautiful.
Would he still think that if he knew the truth?
If he knew it was blind?
“I like yours too,” I said, holding his gaze, entranced. “They remind me … of the space between stars.”
Augustus looked shattered.
I opened my mouth to say something else, but my heart was beating out of my chest.
Augustus dragged his thumb lower and traced my lips.
“Fuckus.” Hermos threw himself down into the free seat next to Drex, and Augustus dropped his hand, the moment broken. “They’restillinterrogating Agatha about Medusa, likeshe hasn’t been through enough already. Obviously she fucking knows nothing.”
Hermos picked up a shot of ambrosia and threw it back, then he picked up another one, and another as he stared down at the grain of the wood, eyes glazing over.
Drex gingerly patted his back, but Hermos gave no indication that he could feel his touch.
Patro and Achilles sat rigid, their expressions blank.Traumatized.
I slumped back in my chair, numbness returning.
Symposium, coliseum, or locked bedroom, the results were the same—we were imprisoned.
We retired as a group soon after with Drex half carrying Hermos, who was too drunk to walk on his own.
None of us said anything as the guards held open our cells—we voluntarily walked inside.
Self-determination was a peculiar thing, and for the first time in my life, I wasn’t so sure that I possessed it.
In the dim scarlet light of our bedroom, Kharon and Augustus seemed larger, more overwhelming.
They carefully took off their crowns and placed them on the floor next to mine. I hadn’t bothered to put it back on this morning.
We stared at the single bed.
Then at each other.
Emotions mixed with lust, crackling between us.
“I’m not s-sure …” I said, then cleared my throat and tried again. “I’m not sure … I’m ready for more—”
“Shut up, princess,” Kharon said softly. “We know—you don’t have to explain. We’re just going to sleep.”
I nodded, the lump in my throat relaxing.
